A resolution has been issued in the disputed legal battle between Apple and Apple Fortnite creator of Epic Games, but until the appeals begin to be published, no one can really declare a “real victory.” (This is a Fortnite Epic failed in its plot to tear down the walls of iOS and Apple failed in its bid to apologize to Epic for being a bad friend, but some outstanding decisions were still made due to the lawsuit. The Verge has a useful wording of what it all means, but the short version is that everyone was wrong in some way and that no one will get exactly what they wanted.
It all started last summer, with Epic introducing a new payment system to Fortnite this allowed users to save 20 percent on the V-Bucks game currency (which was used to buy new characters and dances, etc.) if purchased anywhere other than through the App Store or the Google Play Store. The trick was for Apple and Google to receive all the money earned through purchases from the app in their stores, so they asked users to buy their V-Bucks elsewhere, Epic evaded this and stood in the way of Apple and Google getting their share. Apple saw this as a violation of the App Store rules and did so Fortnite from the platform, and then — almost as if it were planned from the beginning, because it absolutely was—Epic immediately withdrew a lawsuit from Apple for allegedly having a “total monopoly in the iOS app distribution market.”
It wasn’t about money you use Fortnite, then, it was about Apple removing options for users and app developers by taking control of everything that can be loaded on an iOS device. It could have been a reasonable point, but Epic immediately squandered all the goodwill he could have won to defend the little boy by turning it all into a marketing ploy with a silly anti-Apple Fortnite cartoons and a hashtag “#FreeFortnite” that tried to position it as a battle of good against evil instead of a battle of which the hugely successful company manages to keep the $ 0.30 out of every $ 1 you spend.
In her ruling Friday, however, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that it was really the money you use. Fortnite and that both Apple and Epic have been unnecessarily dramatic about everything. He rejected Epic’s arguments that Apple has a monopoly on the mobile gaming market (though he said its success has brought it closer to one) and ruled that Apple is entitled to a reduction in purchases made in the App Store because it uses this as a “license fee.” Apparently, intellectual property law says Apple should get that money somehow, and making a portion of App Store purchases (like when people buy V-Bucks) is simply the easiest way to do this. In addition, Epic must pay damages to Apple for breaching its user agreement when it cornered the new Fortnite payment system without notifying anyone and the Apic App Store developer account is still banned, which means this does not guarantee it Fortnite will never return to iOS.
Buuuut, Apple has also not strayed from this with what it wanted exactly. Epic’s side won a major victory in the way the judge ruled that Apple’s current in-app purchase system violates California’s unfair competition law, preventing developers from telling users if there is one. cheaper options available elsewhere, which means iOS apps are entitled to say “You can buy this cheaper on our website” and link to that website. Everything is a bit inaccurate, so the rules aren’t entirely clear at the moment, but it looks like Apple doesn’t have to do that process. easy, it is simply not allowed to stop it directly. So the rule Fortnite infringed probably shouldn’t have been a rule, but he’s still in trouble because he didn’t say frankly “we’re breaking that rule.”
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For iPhone users, this means that one day you should be able to buy things in your phone games without having to go through the App Store. You may never be able to play Fortnite again, because Apple might be so annoying to Epic for all this, but at least that sounds like good news to … literally everyone other than Apple and Epic Games.